Endurance

Fire

little paper dragon, poised on the shelf in the room painted
green, tucked in its cave below Struwwelpeter and Madeleine,
Janosch and Kipling, scuffed satin ballet shoes and chalk portraits
of boys long dead hanging on the wall

six neat squares of quilt sewn nearly a century ago, pinned above
the cedar chest, keeping leather baby shoes, curled with age, and
knitted bicycle sweaters: momentum  of childhood a thing
you can’t miss in this sunlit room     this dragon

made by small nimble hands, the precise folds shaping its wings,
lifting, spreading, waiting, its yang energy waking from winter, soaring
upwards, inviting change, its heat its power: the fire miraculous,
carried so gently in its little paper heart

Air

the scent        of blooming        things

hyacinth           sweet pea        peony      bursting on a day        we crave

good news,       wafting from gardens                along sunny streets       and the sweet

sweet aroma                 of magnolia      their pink hue              particularly assertive

in the Smithsonian        garden  the yin of them             needed

 

outside     this window         my mother’s creamy camelia         bouncing softly     

in the breeze       fruity fragrance             gliding in          oh how

a thing unseen              hops     a gentle ride       

rises   on            glossy    air

 

 

Water

on the radio, a young harpist, following
in the steps of Alice Coltrane and

    Margaret Bonds and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
    playing muted tones of Troubled Water, sensing a long history

          of rivers and swamps, people moving slowly
          towards a more open world, the harpist growing up

              with African American spirituals, desires for liberty
              hidden behind metaphors, water a symbol of freedom

 

Earth

cherry trees  / spaced  / along wide city streets / announcing spring / in this urban metropolis / these trees, gifted in 1912 /  a token of friendship from Japan // our friendships delicate these days / taking energy and more / perhaps holding  despite / the odds against them // here, look / smaller trees sturdy and familiar / not as showy but fruitful / American holly, redbud, flowering dogwood / native to the eastern seaboard / trees in bloom / roots reaching / sustaining / year after year / softly minding / their own business / flowering and seeding, flowering and seeding  / the quiet understory that might endure

 

 

Michelle Elvy
31 March 2025

Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. Her books include the everrumble and the other side of better, she has edited numerous anthologies, including Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages, edited with Vaughan Rapatahana (The Cuba Press), and the forthcoming Poto! Iti te kupu, nui te kōrero| Short! The big book of small stories, edited with Kiri Piahana-Wong (MUP).